Dams

Drew Lessard stood on top of Folsom Dam and gazed at the Sierra Nevada, which in late spring usually gushes enough melting snow into the reservoir to provide water for a million people. But the mountains were bare, and the snowpack to date remains the lowest on measured record. “If there’s no snowpack, there’s no water,” said Mr.

The Yongding River, which once fed Beijing, ran dry along with 27,000 other rivers in China that have disappeared due to industrialization, dams and drought. "Some of the large parts of the north China plane may suffer severe water shortages," said environmentalist Ma Jun.

A new 'State of the World's Rivers' database shows how the world's rivers have been impoverished by dams and their ecosystems devastated - and provides a valuable resource to help save river basins that remain in good health.

Gov. John Hickenlooper told members of the Colorado Water Congress on Thursday that he thinks it’s “unlikely” that public opinion in the state has shifted in favor of a new major dam project being built in the state, even in the face of population growth and drought.

“Look underneath you,” commands Nate Gray, a burly biologist for the state of Maine. He reaches down to the grate floor of a steel cage perched on a dam straddling the Sebasticook River, and pulls back a board revealing the roiling river 30 feet below.

The 20th century dawned with both excitement and concern for the water future of California and the rapidly growing but arid American West. Gold fever was receding, urban populations were burgeoning, and tentative efforts at modern, irrigated agriculture were expanding.

Last year, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper wrote an executive order requiring the state to create an official Colorado water plan that would lay out how the state should manage water for the next 30 years. Unfortunately, that plan is being hijacked by dam and pipeline builders who want to dam, drain, dry up, and destroy our Colorado rivers.

President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that approves $12.3 billion in infrastructure projects and aims to boost U.S. ports and waterways. The measure passed by wide margins in both the House and Senate, and has been applauded by a number of organizations, particularly agriculture groups.